Sweet Silver Linings
by TandyHard
Summary: Finding a silver lining in the darkest moment. Everlark. Gadge. AU.


**A/N: This is actually going to be a two parter. Part one is Everlark, part two (which I'm still writing) will be Gadge. Same AU but different time frames. I just really loved the interaction between Madge and Gale and thought it would be fun to explore it further. **

**Hope you like it. Constructive criticism is always welcome and if you find a mistake please let me know so I can fix it.**

**Remember, my name is not Suzanne Collins**

**XO**

* * *

She checks her phone again, maybe she didn't feel it vibrating in her pocket, but she is disappointed when she sees there are no messages. There haven't been any messages from him in days and though Madge has assured her it's because Peeta is at home with the flu, she's beginning to worry.

"You expecting a call or something, Catnip?" Gale, who was talking her ear off about his latest outing with some hopeless girl, finally asks.

"No." She says putting my phone back in my pocket.

"You're waiting for the baker to make contact huh?"

"No, Gale, I'm not waiting for anything." She replies defensively.

"You're blushing. Honestly, I don't know what you see in bread boy, he's so…wholesome" says Gale.

"I don't know what you're going on about." She turns and begins walking towards the door.

Katniss and Gale have walked home from school together since their grade school days. And very recently she's befriended the Mayor's daughter, and slowly she has wiggled her way into their routine.

They find Madge sitting on the grassy knoll in front; her blonde hair falls in waves behind her back, her face is tilted towards the sun, soaking it in.  
She opens her eyes when she feels them approaching and waves.

"Ready to go, Undersee?" Gale says looking down at her.

Madge makes a face and puts the sunglasses that are resting on her head, back over her eyes, making Gale arch his eyebrow.

"Did daddy get you new sunglasses? Can't have your delicate eyes getting damaged by the sun?"

"I'll have you know, I bought myself these sunglasses with my savings…two years ago." She says matter-of-factly.

"Whatever, princess."

Katniss doesn't understand what Gale's problem with Madge Undersee is. She's nice, she's smart, and she's actually pretty funny. Katniss _knows_ Gale thinks she's funny because she's caught him smiling at her jokes when she's not looking, and Gale hardly ever smiles. It may have something to do with the fact that Madge Undersee's father makes more money alone than both our households combined. She's never found that to be a problem though, Madge isn't snobby, or boastful about it.

Madge's house is only about 5 minutes away from school, but in those 5 minutes Katniss checks her phone about 10 times.

"Katniss, I told you, I talked to Peeta's brother yesterday. He's throwing up, fever, the whole deal. I'm sure he will text you when he's got enough energy to pick up his phone." She says looking through her purse for her house keys.

"I knew you were checking to see if baker boy had texted you." Gale laughs.

"They're just friends"

"We're just friends"

Madge and Katniss say simultaneously, which just causes Gale to laugh even more.

"Hawthorne, quit being such a dick. She's worried about _her friend_."

"Yes, your majesty."

"Fuck off." Madge says, making Gale smirk.

They watch Madge fumble with her keys and wave before she disappears behind her front door.

"Is there EVER going to be a day when we walk home without you and Madge nearly killing each other?"

"Fat chance, Catnip." He says smirking and I think maybe he enjoys riling her up

The rest of the way home is spent with Gale continuing to tell Katniss about his last date with, whatever name he had said, she was only pretending to pay attention, her mind full of questions about where Peeta has been in the last couple of days.

Katniss wouldn't be so worried about Peeta if she hadn't been on the phone when the altercation with his mother had begun.

She had heard her voice in the background, she had heard all the nasty, horrible names she had called him.

"_Katniss, I gotta go. I'll talk to you soon, okay?" _he had said.

_"Peeta…" _He had hung up before she could ask if he was okay and she hadn't heard from him since then.

"Catnip, if you're so worried about the baker, why don't you go see him?" Gale asks when he realizes I haven't really been listening to him.

"His mom hates me." I say quietly.

"So? You're not going to see _her_." Gale continues.

"I don't know, I don't want to get him in trouble." She says.

"He'd get in trouble for being sick and having a _friend_ visit him?" he asks shaking his head.

"He will probably be back in school on Monday." She says and Gale drops it.

But that night as she lies in bed tossing and turning, she decides she won't be able to sleep until she sees him, until she's sure he's all right.

* * *

_Tree house in five?_ Katniss stares at her screen for a while before she presses the send button.

_IDK. Mother's awake. _Is his response and Katniss is overjoyed because finally she knows he's fine.

_Wait til she goes to bed and meet me then._ She presses send, hoping he will agree.

_Alright. But it might be a while. _

_It's fine. I've got blankets and hot chocolate. _She replies.

She's been waiting for an hour and a half before she finally hears his footsteps approaching the tree house. She watches him walk across his backyard from the tiny window; he doesn't look ill at all. When he finally makes his way up the tree, she smacks him playfully and says,

"I knew you weren't sick, you were just playing hooky." But when she examines his face more closely, she can see the darkness that extends from under his eye to his nose and tiny cut on the corner of his slightly swollen lip.

She can feel anger rising inside her and tears pooling in her eyes.

"Hey." He whispers.

"Peeta, why didn't you tell me?" she says trying hard to keep her voice steady.

"Tell you what? You heard her on the phone, figured you'd guess." He says quietly.

"She has no right," She begins but her voice betrays her.

Her blood is boiling and her face is flushed. Peeta is one of the gentlest, nicest, most compassionate people she has ever met; she can't imagine why anyone would want to harm him…ever.

"I'll be alright Katniss." He reassures her when he notices she's holding back tears.

"I hate her. You don't deserve this…" she says caressing his cheek with her thumb.

"She just…gets angry sometimes," he says and for some reason this makes Katniss angrier.

"Why are you defending her, Peeta? This isn't the first time she's done this to you."

"Katniss…She's my mother…what do you want me to do?" He says

"I don't know, tell her to stop! Don't let her do it!" she knows she shouldn't be raising her voice at him, but she can't stop the anger she feels coursing through her veins.

"Just a few months and then I can get far far away from this hell hole." He says.

Katniss tries her hardest not to let his words sting, because she knows he doesn't mean away from her, but she knows the hurt shows in her face.

"Katniss, you know I don't mean away from _you_." He says grabbing her hand and giving it a squeeze. His touch instantly making her heart beat faster.

"No, I know." She says dropping her gaze to the ground.

Peeta places a finger under her chin and lifts her eyes to meet his.

"We'll still be friends when I leave okay?"

She nods, but something in the back of her mind tells her he is just saying that to ease her mind.

Peeta Mellark will go to college and forget all about his small town best friend. He will meet new people, make new friends; all the girls will fall for him, with his charming personality and his disarming sense of humor. Suddenly the angry tears she was holding back earlier spill over. She tries to wipe them away quickly but Peeta takes her wrists in her hands.

"Katniss, look at me."

A million thoughts run through her head as she lifts her eyes to his, the soft glow of the moon turning them into deep indigo pools, instead of the soft blue she's used to. She can see it in her head, the new college girls hanging all over him, fighting subtly for his attention, and she feels something in the pit of her stomach, an anger not as fierce as she feels towards Peeta's mother, towards these girls Peeta hasn't met yet. _Jealousy._

"You are my best friend. That's never going to change." He says cupping her face with his hands and wiping the rest of her tears with his thumbs.

She nods again but that doesn't make the jealousy disappear. So she does the only thing she thinks might make it go away. She leans in quickly and places her lips upon his. It's barely a kiss, really just a peck, but Peeta looks stunned nonetheless.

"What was that for?" he asks quietly.

"I don't know," she says staring into his wide eyes.

"Okay." He says. And before she has time to blink, his lips are on hers again and this time it's definitely not just a peck.

She's never kissed a boy before; in fact she's only recently begun to wonder what it would be like to kiss a boy, to kiss Peeta specifically. She thinks she's probably not good at it, but she doesn't care because Peeta is _very_ good at it and she's finding it easy to mold her lips to his. Peeta pulls away and she notices the small cut on his bottom lip is bleeding. She uses the sleeve of her shirt to wipe it away and apologizes quietly.

"I didn't notice," he says with a smile.

Once more their lips meet, she can taste a hint of blood still on his lip, but she doesn't particularly care because it seems they've opened a door, which they cannot close. And now with his lips softly moving over hers, she wonders why it took them so long to do this.

"You're really good at this." She blurts out when he pulls away and rests his forehead on hers.

He chuckles and it makes her cheeks burn from embarrassment.

"I haven't kissed anybody before"

"I couldn't tell, but I'm honored." He whispers.

"Why didn't we do this sooner?" she asks.

"I wanted to, I didn't think you did. You and Gale were always together…"

"I didn't know I wanted to until you were talking about leaving, and I started thinking about the new people you'll meet, the new girls..." she trails off.

He raises an eyebrow at her.  
"You got jealous?" he says, the amusement evident in his voice.

She nods.

"Not necessary" he says kissing her lips again.

She's somehow ended up on his lap, her hands playing with his hair while his rest on her hips. His phone vibrates in his pocket, which startles her; she pulls away from him, looking at him with questioning eyes.

"It's my phone." He says laughing.

He pulls the phone out of his pocket and laughs as he looks at the screen, when he shows it to her, she can see it's a message from his brother.

_Quit making out with Everdeen, you have to take my shift in the morning._

It reads.

"How does he—" she begins but Peeta guesses what she is about to ask.

"He doesn't. He just always teases me about you." He says.

"Why?"

He shakes his head a little and moves a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

"I've liked you for a while now, Katniss. My brothers have teased me for years about how I was too chicken to do anything about it."

She giggles, a noise that's foreign to both of them.

"How long is a while?" she asks, curiosity taking over.

She's known Peeta all her life, but they didn't become good Friends until a few years back when she had started high school. And it was only last year that she began calling him her best friend. She had noticed him staring at her before they'd become friends, but he always had a girl on his arm, so she hadn't thought much of it.

"Remember when we were in grade school and first and second graders shared a music hour?" he asks

"Well, it was the first music class of the year and Ms. Daley had asked if anyone knew the national anthem. Your hand shot up and you said your daddy had taught it to you, so she stood you up on a stool in the middle of the classroom."

She nods wondering how he remembers that, because the memory had gotten lost in the back of her mind.

"You opened your mouth and you sang, and I swear to you, you could've heard a pin drop. I went home that day and I told my dad, that someday I'd make you my girlfriend. I spent the next 8 years trying to talk to you."

"Without success." She says playfully.

"Give me a break, I eventually mustered up enough courage to sit with you at lunch that week Gale was out sick." He says smiling widely.

It's such a contradiction that he should be smiling so brightly when half his face is bruised, but she admires his ability to do it, and that's part of the reason she thinks she's drawn to him. She runs her hand softly over his bruised cheek making sure not to apply pressure.

"Promise me you won't hide it from me next time." She whispers

"You have enough on your plate, Katniss, I didn't want to worry you with this."

"Peeta you're my best friend, I—" she trails off because she doesn't know exactly what it is she wants to say. She's said she loves him before, but that was before she had kissed him, and now she doesn't know if 'I love you' is appropriate.

"Just promise me, okay?" she says.

"Okay." He tells her.

They climb down the ladder one at a time and she ends up pressed against the tree as Peeta kisses her one last time before she heads home.

"I work until four, but if you're not busy, maybe we can hang out?"

"I'd like that." She says before she starts heading home.

_Goodnight, Peeta_ she types on her phone when she's in bed.

_Night, Katniss_ she reads his message on her screen before she finally gives in to sleep.


End file.
